“It will be decided after reviewing the utilization rate of the rigid OLED line next year”
CEO Choong-Hoon Lee “It is difficult to expect Samsung Electronics’ QD-OLED TV”
UBI Research CEO Choong-Hoon Lee said that Samsung Display is considering investing in the expansion of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for notebooks. He affirmed that Samsung Electronics has no plans to use quantum dot (QD)-OLED that Samsung Display is developing for TVs.
On the 11th, CEO Choong-Hoon Lee said, “Samsung Display is reviewing the expansion of the 6th generation rigid OLED production line at L7-2 (tentative name A4-2) plant in Tangjeong, Asan, Chungcheongnam-do for the production of notebook OLED panels. “He said.
L7-2 is producing large-sized liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. In the industry, if LCD panel production is stopped here, OLED lines are expected to be built. Samsung Display removed all LCD facilities from the existing L7-1 in 2017 and prepared a 6th generation flexible production line A4 in 2018. The A4 production capacity is 30,000 (30K) sheets per month based on the input of original plates.
CEO Lee said, “If the A4-2 investment proceeds, Samsung Display will consider using low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin film transistor (TFT) type rigid OLED.” “It becomes.
However, he said, “The investment may vary depending on the situation next year,” he said. “Currently, the rigid OLED line of Samsung Display A2 plant is fully operational, but the quantity may be reduced next year.” From the perspective of Samsung Display, the rigid OLED produced on the A2 line is a major customer, Huawei’s shrinking smartphone business, and expanding the adoption of LCD panels for Samsung Electronics’ smartphones.
CEO Lee explained, “Samsung Electronics is reducing the adoption of rigid OLEDs and increasing the application of LCD panels to mid- to low-end smartphones.”
Currently, Samsung Display is producing OLED for notebook computers in part of the A2 line, which makes rigid OLED panels. “Last year, Samsung Display’s laptop OLED panel shipments were 800,000 units,” Lee said. “This year, the company’s laptop OLED shipments target is 2 million units, but the actual production is expected to be 1.5 million units.” He said, “For this quantity, one 6G 15K-scale line is enough,” he said. “We will decide to invest in A4-2 by comprehensively reviewing the A2 line utilization rate and notebook OLED shipments in the future.”